Tuesday, May 12, 2015

An Open Letter To You, Dear Reader

Dear Reader,

Many of you I have met. Many of you I know online only and haven't met yet. And there are a few of you lurking I know nothing about. Whatever our relationship is, I'm glad you are here, and I wanted to pose a challenge to you.

It's simple, really.

I want you to think of your life as a mythological story. Your life is an epic journey. Your life has all the great components of mythology. You live, you move forward, you love, you lose those close to you, to brush with Death, you recover with lessons learned.

Your life has meaning. Your life is important.

Your life, Dear Reader, has lessons for others to learn.

I've been thinking of this all day. Last night I watched the documentary Mythic Journeys and it got my brain boiling with all kinds of wonderful thoughts. I see more potential now and I feel much less cynical.

If I were to describe my life as a mythological story, it would be a journey. Much less cliche than the usual sort we are used to in our cinema. It is missing pieces and there are plenty of monsters, demons, charlatans, thieves and trolls. Rites of Passage were missed, lessons were skipped, battles were lost. And I'm not Percival--I'm no fool. I didn't always follow the righteous path and sometimes I went to the left-handed paths.

This is not your history. I'm not asking for your autobiography. History is just journalism and we know how inaccurate that can be.

No. Imagine your mythology, your life, would be taught to children sitting in a circle around a storyteller. You are the hero and they are hearing your story because there is a lesson to be learned here. The storyteller has chosen your story because there is a lesson to be taught to these children so they may develop into better people.

Your story, originally found written on a scroll, tucked in a clay jar in the back of some cave, will be re-told over and over again. The central themes are that important.

You are needed. Your story is needed.

Dear Reader, you are more than an earning unit for the Plutocracy. You were not put on this planet to earn a little bit of money to buy crap you don't really need to impress people you don't really like. You are not measured by your car, your clothes, your house or your job. You are not a cog in the wheel.

You, Dear Reader, are a hero. You may not have slayed or even seen a dragon, but you've dealt with your share of pitfalls and ugly situations. And if you're young, as many of my readers are, then you need to do this more than anybody because you will suddenly be shown just how many paths are before you and how many options you have.

Exciting, isn't it? You now have more places to go, more people to meet, and more chances to really fuck up and get yourself into all kinds of trouble. Imagine the heartbreak just waiting for you!

I'm sorting this out for myself. This is something I'm doing, too, for the exact same reasons I mentioned above. And for the first time in a very long time, I'm not bored or cynical. I don't feel the need to destroy anything or anybody. I'm not angry. I'm filled with a curiosity.

And right now, Dear Reader, that's good enough for me. I have no idea how this story is going to end and frankly, I'm beginning to get curious, which makes me want to turn the pages even faster.